1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an integral skin foam molded article, in which a foamed layer is formed between and integrally with a core and a skin.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present applicant has already filed a patent application for an integral skin foam molded article as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-6283. In the article according to the invention of this patent application, a core is formed with an accommodating recess for accommodating a foamed layer. An erected wall of the core located around the accommodating recess is formed at its intermediate position with a step such that a bottom side portion of the accommodating recess is narrower than an opening side portion of the accommodating recess. A skin has a peripheral erected part bent from the circumference to the back of its main part. And the peripheral erected part of the skin is pressed against a portion of the erected wall located to surround the bottom side portion of the accommodating recess bounded by the step. Thus, the sealing properties of the article are ensured to prevent a foaming resin material from leaking to the surface side of the skin main part, thereby improving the appearance of the article.
Furthermore, according to the invention of this patent application, a peripheral narrow groove is opened in the skin peripheral erected part so as to be opposite to the step of the erected wall. Thus, the foaming resin material having penetrated between the skin peripheral erected part and the erected wall will be stored in the peripheral narrow groove. Also in this manner, the foaming resin material is prevented from leaking to the surface side of the skin main part, thereby improving the appearance of the article. Also, the presence of this peripheral narrow groove improves the stiffness of the skin peripheral erected part, thereby preventing waving of the skin which causes the leakage of the material.
If the skin is formed by slush molding, in order to form the above-described peripheral narrow groove in the skin peripheral erected part, a peripheral narrow protrusion for forming a peripheral narrow groove has to be provided in a slush mold. In this case, when the skin is demolded after the molding has been finished, the peripheral narrow groove portion of the skin peripheral erected part should be taken out of the peripheral narrow protrusion. However, since the peripheral narrow protrusion is stuck in the peripheral narrow groove, it is hard to take the peripheral narrow groove portion of the skin peripheral erected part out of the peripheral narrow protrusion.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an integral skin foam molded article with sealing properties described above which has an easily demoldable skin structure even for the slush molded skin.
To achieve this object, the present invention is characterized in that a skin peripheral erected part is bent to correspond to the shape of a step of an erected wall.
Specifically, the present invention is intended for an integral skin foam molded article including: a core; a skin; a foamed layer formed between and integrally with the core and the skin; the core being formed with an erected wall constituting an accommodating recess which accommodates the foamed layer, the accommodating recess being opened to correspond to a region where the skin is formed; and the skin including a main part that covers an opening of the accommodating recess, and a peripheral erected part that is formed integrally with the main part to bend from the circumference to the back of the main part and engage an inner periphery of the erected wall. In the present invention, the following solutions are taken.
In the invention of claim 1, the erected wall of the core is formed at an intermediate position thereof with a core side step so that a portion of the accommodating recess closer to the bottom thereof than the core side step is narrower than a portion of the accommodating recess closer to the opening thereof than the core side step. The peripheral erected part of the skin is formed at an intermediate position thereof with a skin side step that is located closer to the opening of the accommodating recess than the core side step of the erected wall, the skin side step bending toward inside of the accommodating recess. An opening side peripheral erected portion of the peripheral erected part of the skin located closer to the opening of the accommodating recess than the skin side step is pressed against an opening side erected wall portion of the erected wall located closer to the opening of the accommodating recess than the core side step, while a bottom side peripheral erected portion of the peripheral erected part of the skin located closer to the bottom of the accommodating recess than the skin side step is pressed against a bottom side erected wall portion of the erected wall located closer to the bottom of the accommodating recess than the core side step.
In the above structure according to the invention of claim 1, the skin side step formed in the peripheral erected part of the skin provides a level difference in a direction from inside to outside of the accommodating recess because of the positional relationship between the opening side peripheral erected portion and the bottom side peripheral erected portion. Therefore when the skin is formed by slush molding, no peripheral narrow protrusion for forming a peripheral narrow groove is needed unlike the prior art and it can be avoided that the skin is hard to demold because the peripheral narrow protrusion gets stuck in the peripheral narrow groove. Accordingly, the skin can be smoothly demolded with small resistance.
Furthermore, since the opening side peripheral erected portion of the peripheral erected part of the skin is pressed against the opening side erected wall portion of the erected wall, while the bottom side peripheral erected portion of the peripheral erected part of the skin is pressed against the bottom side erected wall portion of the erected wall, a dual sealing structure can be obtained to prevent a foaming resin material from leaking to the surface side of the main part of the skin, thereby improving the appearance of the integral skin foam molded article.
Moreover, the skin side step increases the stiffness of the peripheral erected part of the skin, thereby preventing waving of the skin which causes the leakage of the foaming resin material.
The invention of claim 2 is based on the invention of claim 1 and characterized in that a gap is formed between the skin side step and the core side step.
In the above structure according to the invention of claim 2, even if the foaming resin material penetrates between the bottom side erected wall portion of the erected wall and the bottom side peripheral erected portion of the peripheral erected part of the skin and further reaches between the core side step and the skin side step, the foaming resin material is stored in the gap between the skin side step and the core side step, thereby preventing the foaming resin material from leaking to the surface side of the main part of the skin. As a result, the improvement in appearance of the integral skin foam molded article can be ensured.
The invention of claim 3 is based on the invention of claim 1 and characterized in that the skin side step is pressed against the core side step.
In the above structure according to the invention of claim 3, the skin can be positioned at a right location as a result of the pressing of the skin side step against the core side step. Accordingly, the boundary between the core and the skin can be defined well, thus improving the appearance of the integral skin foam molded article.
Furthermore, the existence of the skin side step and the core side step can increase the contact area between the peripheral erected part of the skin and the erected wall of the core. As a result, the sealing properties of the article can be further improved.
The invention of claim 4 is based on the invention of claim 1 and characterized in that, in the vicinity of a corner at which the bottom side peripheral erected portion of the peripheral erected part of the skin intersects with the skin side step, a thin hinge part is formed for facilitating leaning of the bottom side peripheral erected portion against the bottom side erected wall portion of the erected wall of the core.
In the above structure according to the invention of claim 4, the foaming pressure during the molding allows the bottom side peripheral erected portion of the peripheral erected part of the skin to lean against the bottom side erected wall portion by action of the thin hinge part as a fulcrum and to be thereby pressed against it. Thus, the bottom side peripheral erected portion of the skin tightly engages the bottom side erected wall portion with certainty. As a result, the sealing properties of the article can be further improved.
The invention of claim 5 is based on the invention of claim 1 and characterized in that the core side step has a depression that is opened to face the skin side step.
In the above structure according to the invention of claim 5, even if the foaming resin material penetrates between the bottom side erected wall portion of the erected wall and the bottom side peripheral erected portion of the peripheral erected part of the skin and further reaches between the core side step and the skin side step, the foaming resin material is stored in the depression formed in the core side step, thereby preventing the foaming resin material from leaking to the surface side of the skin main part. As a result, the sealing properties of the article are further improved.
Moreover, the depression is opened to the direction in which the core is demolded, and thus under cut will not be created. Accordingly, the mold needs no slide core to form the depression, thus reducing the cost of the mold.